PKJ Action Comics Discussion and Spoilers

[Vordan]

I’m curious if the “Infinity Stones” will be the explanation as to how Mongul can go toe to toe with a fully powered Superman. Since his first appearance Mongul has been shown to be just as strong as Kal, but in this run we’ve seen that he’s strong but no where near as powerful as usually portrayed. This weakened Superman was able to knock Mongul off balance and the backstory shows that while Warzoons are very durable, they’re no where near the level of a fully powered Kryptonian.

One of them is likely the gem that the first Mongul took from the Old God he killed, so yes I do think the Aspects of Olgrun are the reason for his strength.

[Robotman]

One of them is likely the gem that the first Mongul took from the Old God he killed, so yes I do think the Aspects of Olgrun are the reason for his strength.

I get that the stone gave the first Mongul super strength which allowed him to conquer his planet but the fact that the “god” he stole it from was taken out by a rock shows some pretty inconsistent power levels.

[NaVi]

I get that the stone gave the first Mongul super strength which allowed him to conquer his planet but the fact that the “god” he stole it from was taken out by a rock shows some pretty inconsistent power levels.

If the stone gives you strength magically, it's just strength, no invulnerability/resistance.

[nightrider]

If the stone gives you strength magically, it's just strength, no invulnerability/resistance.

I wonder how this will be connected to the emotional spectrum. Would be fun if the stones were actually the original source that the emotional spectrum has extracted out.

[Vordan]

I didn’t see anything explicit about the Aspects being tied to the Emotional Spectrum, I think people are reading too much into the stones being tied to the visible light spectrum since far as I know that’s the case with the Infinity Stones as well. Color coding them might just be a way to distinguish them amongst each other.

[manwhohaseverything]

it said world's grew out or around the stone's aspects.the rings(lantern) have to be choose you and you have to be worthy of it.This is a classic tale of the knights.Not to mention morrison did the heavy lifting with his story in authority foreshadowing things.

[Ascended]

I didn’t see anything explicit about the Aspects being tied to the Emotional Spectrum, I think people are reading too much into the stones being tied to the visible light spectrum since far as I know that’s the case with the Infinity Stones as well. Color coding them might just be a way to distinguish them amongst each other.

Entirely possible, but there's also been tons of hints about upcoming stuff with the Lanterns, and PKJ is writing a Lantern tie-in to Dark Crisis.

Would PKJ have a story in mind for the Lanterns and then color code these stones to match just by happenstance? Dude seems far too detailed oriented, and too much of a planner, for such an obvious coincidence. Maybe the stones have nothing to do with the emotional spectrum, we won't really know until we know, but if I had to bet I'd say that PKJ knows what he's doing.

Also, is anyone else expecting the Sword of Superman to show up at some point? Maybe I've just got gladiator Kent on my mind but it seems like it'd be a good fit for the narrative PKJ is building.

[Vordan]

His recent interview on Word Balloon finally got released in podcast form!

Some tidbits so far:
-He explicitly says the next arc is Clark coming back to Earth, so people worried Clark was going to get replaced to tie in with Dark Crisis can rest easy. Also says Dark Crisis won’t affect Action much. He gets people want it to all line up in the months they’re both out but he argues that later on people are going to read Dark Crisis and Action on their own in separate trades, so it’s better not to constantly force tie ins
-As someone mentioned earlier, The Warworld Saga ends in Sept with a giant oversized issue called Warworld: Apocalypse (or maybe it’s Apokolips?). Can’t say what Action 1050 will be just yet but it’s going to be big and the two issues before it will be setting it up. Given the hints about there being more Superfamily content coming, I’m going to say 1050 will be that big Superfamily team up

Entirely possible, but there's also been tons of hints about upcoming stuff with the Lanterns, and PKJ is writing a Lantern tie-in to Dark Crisis.

Would PKJ have a story in mind for the Lanterns and then color code these stones to match just by happenstance? Dude seems far too detailed oriented, and too much of a planner, for such an obvious coincidence. Maybe the stones have nothing to do with the emotional spectrum, we won't really know until we know, but if I had to bet I'd say that PKJ knows what he's doing.

Also, is anyone else expecting the Sword of Superman to show up at some point? Maybe I've just got gladiator Kent on my mind but it seems like it'd be a good fit for the narrative PKJ is building.

I can’t rule it out for the same reasons you say, I expect his GL stuff will tie back into Action as well. Mongul does have a connection to the Emotional Spectrum as well given his father was a Sinestro for a bit. Maybe that yellow gem is connected to the Fear energy of the ES? Or maybe Olgrun created the ES when he was shattered somehow.

That Sword of Superman issue actually inspired his entire run believe it or not. He didn’t think the actual story in that issue lived up to the way the cover inspired his imagination as a kid, but he wanted to write a Superman run that gave him the kinds of stories he imagined about looking at it. Good chance it or something similar to that Sword will show up. I hope it gets an actual proper name, every legendary sword needs one.

[The Frog Bros]

His recent interview on Word Balloon finally got released in podcast form!

Some tidbits so far:
-He explicitly says the next arc is Clark coming back to Earth, so people worried Clark was going to get replaced to tie in with Dark Crisis can rest easy. Also says Dark Crisis won’t affect Action much. He gets people want it to all line up in the months they’re both out but he argues that later on people are going to read Dark Crisis and Action on their own in separate trades, so it’s better not to constantly force tie ins
-As someone mentioned earlier, The Warworld Saga ends in Sept with a giant oversized issue called Warworld: Apocalypse (or maybe it’s Apokolips?). Can’t say what Action 1050 will be just yet but it’s going to be big and the two issues before it will be setting it up. Given the hints about there being more Superfamily content coming, I’m going to say 1050 will be that big Superfamily team up

I can’t rule it out for the same reasons you say, I expect his GL stuff will tie back into Action as well. Mongul does have a connection to the Emotional Spectrum as well given his father was a Sinestro for a bit. Maybe that yellow gem is connected to the Fear energy of the ES? Or maybe Olgrun created the ES when he was shattered somehow.

That Sword of Superman issue actually inspired his entire run believe it or not. He didn’t think the actual story in that issue lived up to the way the cover inspired his imagination as a kid, but he wanted to write a Superman run that gave him the kinds of stories he imagined about looking at it. Good chance it or something similar to that Sword will show up. I hope it gets an actual proper name, every legendary sword needs one.

Stack it up against the likes of Glamdring and Anduril.

[Robotman]

I didn’t see anything explicit about the Aspects being tied to the Emotional Spectrum, I think people are reading too much into the stones being tied to the visible light spectrum since far as I know that’s the case with the Infinity Stones as well. Color coding them might just be a way to distinguish them amongst each other.

A lot of signs point to them being connected to the emotional spectrum. There are seven colored stones (ROYGBIV), though i think one of them was supposed to be red and was miscolored.

The stones built planets around themselves as protection, which is similar to the White Lantern/Life Entity which apparently created earth as it's protective planet.

[Vordan]

-Says that he plans to give the same focus to another Superman Rogue after Mongul, refers to this Rogue as “him” and “one of my favorite Rogues”
-Likes both depowered and overpowered Superman. If he had his way he thinks he’d enjoy writing a Superman who can push planets, a god-like entity who loves us and cares about us
-Says that one big way current Mongul differs from his predecessors is that all they valued was brute strength, and the new Mongul has grander ambitions. Instead of ruling Warworld via brute strength, new Mongul cultivated the current cult of worshipping their chains and attempting to brainwash everyone into being happy with their role. Crucially to the Warzoons, Mongul is their Superman, he’s their champion and hero
-Describes that as feeding into one of the big themes of the Warworld Saga: the dangers of hero worship and propaganda
-From his perspective Superman primarily thinks of himself as “Clark” and wouldn’t call himself “Superman” if he didn’t have to hide his ID because Superman is a moniker describing someone as “better than” others. Does acknowledge that Kara and others will call him Kal and thinks that’s fine, but to PKJ it makes sense that Clark thinks of himself firstly as “Clark”. Appreciated Bendis outing him because now he can write Superman introducing himself as Clark to others
-Read a bunch of Pulitzer winning articles as prep for writing Clark’s journal entries on Warworld
-He’s had ambitions for GL stuff for a long time, not sure if DC will actually let him do them, but since this is an Elseworld take in Dark Crisis he got more freedom
-Most inspirational Superman moment for him is when Supes goes in to talk to the anti-heroes in the bar in Kingdom Come
-Relates a touching anecdote about a guy named Miguel who came up to him at a con and told him how he had three open heart surgeries and Superman helped him get through them
-Talks a bit about “Superman isn’t real so he’s whatever he’s written as” which is a notion he personally disagrees with. He thinks there’s an “idea” of Superman that’s bigger than any one story, and stands for something meaningful
-Hints that he may be writing a JSA member in the future
-Actually talks about the Aspects of Olgrun and their similarity to the Infinity Gems! Ok he claims that they’re not *literally* gems, that was artistic license on Conrad’s part not something he put in the script. The Aspects are much “bigger” than some small items, he specifically says they aren’t really physically things you can hold or mess with. You won’t see a moment where someone holds up 7 Gems and cackling.
-Morrison and PKJ were talking about the Aspects and Morrison said “they love the idea that it takes 7 planets to make a god”
-Won’t spoil whether Thao takes on a superhero ID
-The aspects are a different thing from the Emotional Spectrum
-Later parts of the Action run will incorporate more of the wider DCU, he thinks there’s a lot of opportunities to tie the DC Cosmic stuff together. Mentions again there will be a connection between the Warworld Saga and the Kirbyverse
-Says the editors are the ones who pitched him on the idea of “Superman on Warworld” and he’s the one who came up with the execution by pitching what they could do with the basic idea of Superman being away
-Talks a bit about the Morrison’s “Superman Red/Blue” idea says he didn’t think he could do the concept justice and already had a clear idea of what the Warworld Saga would be about in terms of themes: hero worship, human trafficking, and propaganda’s effect on people

A lot of signs point to them being connected to the emotional spectrum. There are seven colored stones (ROYGBIV), though i think one of them was supposed to be red and was miscolored.

The stones built planets around themselves as protection, which is similar to the White Lantern/Life Entity which apparently created earth as it's protective planet.

He says they’re not something like “the will stone” or what have you, but maybe they are something similar to the Life Entity? Or even the planets themselves? Interested to see how they’re depicted.

[Robotman]

-Says that he plans to give the same focus to another Superman Rogue after Mongul, refers to this Rogue as “him” and “one of my favorite Rogues”
-Likes both depowered and overpowered Superman. If he had his way he thinks he’d enjoy writing a Superman who can push planets, a god-like entity who loves us and cares about us
-Says that one big way current Mongul differs from his predecessors is that all they valued was brute strength, and the new Mongul has grander ambitions. Instead of ruling Warworld via brute strength, new Mongul cultivated the current cult of worshipping their chains and attempting to brainwash everyone into being happy with their role. Crucially to the Warzoons, Mongul is their Superman, he’s their champion and hero
-Describes that as feeding into one of the big themes of the Warworld Saga: the dangers of hero worship and propaganda
-From his perspective Superman primarily thinks of himself as “Clark” and wouldn’t call himself “Superman” if he didn’t have to hide his ID because Superman is a moniker describing someone as “better than” others. Does acknowledge that Kara and others will call him Kal and thinks that’s fine, but to PKJ it makes sense that Clark thinks of himself firstly as “Clark”. Appreciated Bendis outing him because now he can write Superman introducing himself as Clark to others
-Read a bunch of Pulitzer winning articles as prep for writing Clark’s journal entries on Warworld
-He’s had ambitions for GL stuff for a long time, not sure if DC will actually let him do them, but since this is an Elseworld take in Dark Crisis he got more freedom
-Most inspirational Superman moment for him is when Supes goes in to talk to the anti-heroes in the bar in Kingdom Come
-Relates a touching anecdote about a guy named Miguel who came up to him at a con and told him how he had three open heart surgeries and Superman helped him get through them
-Talks a bit about “Superman isn’t real so he’s whatever he’s written as” which is a notion he personally disagrees with. He thinks there’s an “idea” of Superman that’s bigger than any one story, and stands for something meaningful
-Hints that he may be writing a JSA member in the future
-Actually talks about the Aspects of Olgrun and their similarity to the Infinity Gems! Ok he claims that they’re not *literally* gems, that was artistic license on Conrad’s part not something he put in the script. The Aspects are much “bigger” than some small items, he specifically says they aren’t really physically things you can hold or mess with. You won’t see a moment where someone holds up 7 Gems and cackling.
-Morrison and PKJ were talking about the Aspects and Morrison said “they love the idea that it takes 7 planets to make a god”
-Won’t spoil whether Thao takes on a superhero ID
-The aspects are a different thing from the Emotional Spectrum
-Later parts of the Action run will incorporate more of the wider DCU, he thinks there’s a lot of opportunities to tie the DC Cosmic stuff together. Mentions again there will be a connection between the Warworld Saga and the Kirbyverse
-Says the editors are the ones who pitched him on the idea of “Superman on Warworld” and he’s the one who came up with the execution by pitching what they could do with the basic idea of Superman being away
-Talks a bit about the Morrison’s “Superman Red/Blue” idea says he didn’t think he could do the concept justice and already had a clear idea of what the Warworld Saga would be about in terms of themes: hero worship, human trafficking, and propaganda’s effect on people

He says they’re not something like “the will stone” or what have you, but maybe they are something similar to the Life Entity? Or even the planets themselves? Interested to see how they’re depicted.

This all sounds amazing! I love his take on Superman as a concept.

The dangers of propaganda and cults of personality are very relevant themes.

Ok, so the Aspects of Olgrun aren’t actual stones and aren't connected to the emotional spectrum. I wish he would have chatted more with Conrad about what he had in mind haha. He really drew something very different than what PKJ is describing.

So they’re more like the 7 auras of Humbaba from the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Well apparently every cosmic monster in comics needs to be searching for something. Mongul now has his ultimate power item that he’s after.

Still waiting to see what the hell is up with the Genesis fragment that started this whole thing. It created giant sea monsters and seemed to communicate with Superman. A fragment of the Aspect hidden in Warworld?

[HsssH]

So the entire Warworld might be one Aspect?

[Ascended]

So the entire Warworld might be one Aspect?

I haven't been to the LCS yet so all I've seen from the newest issue/s is the stuff posted here, but yeah that seems to be what they're saying.

Or perhaps it's more a case of these Aspects not having any kind of physical location at all, but places like Warworld are "closer" on a cognitive/spiritual level. If anyone ever read the Wheel of Time novels, sorta like how the Dark One isn't "really" trapped at Shayol Ghul, but that place is where the veil between realities is thinnest.

That Sword of Superman issue actually inspired his entire run believe it or not. He didn’t think the actual story in that issue lived up to the way the cover inspired his imagination as a kid, but he wanted to write a Superman run that gave him the kinds of stories he imagined about looking at it. Good chance it or something similar to that Sword will show up. I hope it gets an actual proper name, every legendary sword needs one.

Ha! That's great, I love that PKJ was inspired by what that story *didn't* do!

That does increase my hopes of the Sword, or something like it, making an appearance.

As for the name, a magic space sword *does* need a good name. Given the themes of the Warworld saga something like "Hopebringer" seems an obvious choice. But that's also blindingly obvious too, and I'd hope PKJ can cook up something better than I could after five seconds of halfassed consideration.

[The Frog Bros]

-Says that he plans to give the same focus to another Superman Rogue after Mongul, refers to this Rogue as “him” and “one of my favorite Rogues”

Looking forward to the Metropolis based story line. As cool as this story has been, will be nice to have both an other-worldly story and an Earth based story under his belt.

-Likes both depowered and overpowered Superman. If he had his way he thinks he’d enjoy writing a Superman who can push planets, a god-like entity who loves us and cares about us

I appreciate how he is not completely beholden to one single version of Superman and I'm sure he'd be quite good at writing any iteration based on his work to date. Speaks to his talent as a writer.

-Says that one big way current Mongul differs from his predecessors is that all they valued was brute strength, and the new Mongul has grander ambitions. Instead of ruling Warworld via brute strength, new Mongul cultivated the current cult of worshipping their chains and attempting to brainwash everyone into being happy with their role. Crucially to the Warzoons, Mongul is their Superman, he’s their champion and hero
-Describes that as feeding into one of the big themes of the Warworld Saga: the dangers of hero worship and propaganda

I've really enjoyed this aspect of Mongul during this run. It's a nice nuance to his evil and manipulative nature.